VE Day Oral History Project Claire Dimond Mills, May 2025
Rhys interviewing Robin Parry (pjoto courtesy Claire Dimon Mills)
Residents' Recollections
We are lucky to have so many people living in Box who survived the Second World War. As part of the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day celebrations, we decided to organise an oral history project in the village. Along with a group of wonderful young people from Box (and their parents). I interviewed seven Box residents about what they remembered of their childhood living through the war and their recollections of the VE Day celebrations in 1945. .
Among the interviewees were 100 year old Mary Barrett who was working in London for an insurance company during the war. She vividly remembers lying in bed listening to bombs fall on London and her commute to work being impeded due to the railway lines being destroyed. Many of the participants have memories of planes flying overhead and the searchlights combing the sky for enemy aircraft.
Two of our Box residents are lucky to have survived the war despite bombs falling nearby. One fell next to the pram in which Jane Cox was asleep at their home near Frome. As a result the family move to Dorchester where Jane was targetted by a German plane while on a walk but luckily escaped. Robin Parry had to move twice, once when their home in Bristol was destroyed by bombing, and later from Weston super Mare where their home was often bombed by enemy aircraft on their way to South Wales.
We are lucky to have so many people living in Box who survived the Second World War. As part of the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day celebrations, we decided to organise an oral history project in the village. Along with a group of wonderful young people from Box (and their parents). I interviewed seven Box residents about what they remembered of their childhood living through the war and their recollections of the VE Day celebrations in 1945. .
Among the interviewees were 100 year old Mary Barrett who was working in London for an insurance company during the war. She vividly remembers lying in bed listening to bombs fall on London and her commute to work being impeded due to the railway lines being destroyed. Many of the participants have memories of planes flying overhead and the searchlights combing the sky for enemy aircraft.
Two of our Box residents are lucky to have survived the war despite bombs falling nearby. One fell next to the pram in which Jane Cox was asleep at their home near Frome. As a result the family move to Dorchester where Jane was targetted by a German plane while on a walk but luckily escaped. Robin Parry had to move twice, once when their home in Bristol was destroyed by bombing, and later from Weston super Mare where their home was often bombed by enemy aircraft on their way to South Wales.
Peggy Butt, her brother Ron, and Arthur Butt hauling dirt to build an air raid shelter (courtesy Peggy Butt)
Wartime Life and VE Day
Those who spent the war in the countryside did not find rationing as hard as those in the cities, except for the lack of sweets! Peggy Butt was evacuated from London to a farm in Kingsdown at the age of 3. She remembers working with the land girls to plant and pick 4 acres of potatoes. Ewen Wannop, who spent the war in Aberdeen, was fortunate to have relations in Australia who sent him jellies and chocolate that spent so long travelling to Scotland by ship it had a white coating!
Not all those interviewed participated in VE Day but those who do have vivid memories. Jane Cox was swung around by a policeman shouting ‘the war is over’. Steve Wheeler went to a big tea party on the rec behind his house in North London where he failed to win the sprinting race when he fell over. Derek Price, who was a teenager during the war, remembers all the bonfires that had been lit all over Bath illuminating the darkness that had ended with Victory in Europe.
Those who spent the war in the countryside did not find rationing as hard as those in the cities, except for the lack of sweets! Peggy Butt was evacuated from London to a farm in Kingsdown at the age of 3. She remembers working with the land girls to plant and pick 4 acres of potatoes. Ewen Wannop, who spent the war in Aberdeen, was fortunate to have relations in Australia who sent him jellies and chocolate that spent so long travelling to Scotland by ship it had a white coating!
Not all those interviewed participated in VE Day but those who do have vivid memories. Jane Cox was swung around by a policeman shouting ‘the war is over’. Steve Wheeler went to a big tea party on the rec behind his house in North London where he failed to win the sprinting race when he fell over. Derek Price, who was a teenager during the war, remembers all the bonfires that had been lit all over Bath illuminating the darkness that had ended with Victory in Europe.
To hear, or read, the interviews in full please visit https://www.clairedimondmills.co.uk/ve-day-memories. Thank you to all those who were interviewed and to their amazing interviewers – Amelia, Benji, Eliza, Josie, Rae, Rhys, Thea, Toby, and Woody.